By winning the regular season title in the Lancaster County Legion baseball League, Ephrata put itself in a nice spot for the playoffs.

A No. 1 seed and home field in every postseason game were the rewards for the two-time defending county champions. But all of that was beginning to unravel for Ephrata in Saturday's winners' bracket semifinals.

Lancaster was within 5-3 with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the seventh inning. Relief pitcher Nate Baxter came in for starter Gavilon Harnish to face Miguel Reyna.

Ephrata jumps in front of LancasterEphrata scores three runs in the bottom of the first inning against Lancaster in the Lancaster County Legion baseball playoffs. Ephrata won 5-3 to advance to the winners' bracket finals.

Reyna hit a grounder to third baseman Chase Wike, who tug third base for one out, then threw home where catcher Colin Albright applied the tag to complete the double play.

Baxter got the next batter to pop up to short to end the game and move Ephrata into the winners' bracket finals with the 5-3 win.

Ephrata will play at home against Penn Manor at 4 p.m Saturday. Lancaster will go to Marietta at 1 p.m. Saturday for a losers' bracket contest.

The third-to-home double play turned by Wike, who entered the game in the fifth inning, was one of three double plays turned by Ephrata.

"That's just a heads up play by Chase to think to get both outs," Ephrata head coach Derek Sipe said.

Chase Wike turns double playChase Wike turns a third-to-home double play in the seventh inning of Ephrata's 5-3 win over Lancaster in the Lancaster County Legion baseball playoffs.

In the first inning, it looked like Ephrata (14-3) might cruise to victory, as the first three batters reached base and scored. Ethan Sipe scored on Baxter's single, Jake Terry scored on John Gehman's ground out, and Albright scored on Brady Sipe's infield single.

"You can't play ball like that against a team like this," Lancaster head coach Gerry Shehan said.

But Lancaster (10-8) quickly bit into the 3-0 deficit. In the top of the second, Angel Rivera hit an RBI ground out and Greg Silveste had a run-scoring single to make the score 3-2.

Lancaster had chances to even the score, but hit into inning ending double plays in the fourth and fifth innings.

"They just made the plays that they needed to make," Shehan said.

Ephrata added to its lead with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Brady Sipe and Jarred Martin led off with back-to-back walks. Brady Sipe scored on an errant throw after a bunt, and Martin scored on Ethan Sipe's sacrifice fly.

Derek Sipe told his team to take a strike during their plate appearances in the fourth.

"Their pitcher [Silvestre] is a good pitcher," Derek Sipe said. "Some of the pitches he threw were strikes anyway, but it was helping with getting us a different mindset."

Lancaster scored its last run in the sixth when Taylor reached base on an outfield error, then moved to third and home on wild pitches.

Harnish pitched the first six innings, allowing seven hits and two walks while striking out four.

Silvestre went five innings with five hits and three walks allowed and four strikeouts.

Penn Manor 10, Marietta 5: Grant Gale had two doubles and there RBIs for Penn Manor in the other Lancaster County winners' bracket semifinal. Cameron Dickerson drove in two more runs in the win. Austin Martinez had two RBIs for Marietta.

LEBANON COUNTY

Myerstown 1, Annville 0: Jake Stager had a straight steal of home in the bottom of the sixth inning to give Myerstown a 1-0 lead in the best-of-5 finals. Annville put runners at first and third with one out in the top of the seventh, but Conor Bawiec came on in relief to get the last two outs. Chris Kreider pitched the first 6 1/3 innings of the shutout.

DAUPHIN COUNTY:

Upper Dauphin 4, Linglestown 1: Matt Deitrich and Brendan Miller each had RBIs as Upper Dauphin won in this losers' bracket contest. Miller struck out 12 Linglestown batters. It turned into two wins for the price of one for Upper Dauphin, because Middletown withdrew from the the tournament. So Upper Dauphin will play in the losers' bracket final at 3 p.m. Sunday against the loser of the Hummelstown-Paxton game. Regardless of the opponent, Upper Dauphin will be the road team.

Hummelstown 6, Paxton 4 (suspended, 5th): The winners' bracket final will resume at Hummelstown at 1 p.m. Sunday. The winner will be in Monday's championship game.

CUMBERLAND COUNTY

New Cumberland 9, Mechanicsburg 3: Brayden Lackey, Julian Bury and Kyle Wickenheiser all homered for New Cumberland in the sixth inning in this first-round elimination game. New Cumberland will play at Hampden at 5 p.m. Sunday when the double-elimination portion of the tournament begins. John McGee added three RBIs for New Cumberland.

Silver Spring 10, Enola 1: Silver Spring scored in each at bat to advance into the double-elimination phase of the playoffs. Jack Legore and Nate Kulp each had two RBIs for Silver Spring.